1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a low-flow sprinkler, particularly to a shield assembly of adjustable sprinkling angle and orientation
2. Description of the Related Art
Since the 1930s, the impact sprinkler has been applied for the allocation of water in agricultural irrigation. The typical impact sprinkler provides a discharge member or a deflector to guide the water into a spoon connected to a rotary shaft for the water to be in a radial distribution. The impact sprinkler distributes the water in a circular rotation. It is also known as a rotary sprinkler or low-flow sprinkler.
FIGS. 1A to 1C show an impact sprinkler 10 and such type of patent includes U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,216,817, 7,954,731, and US Patent Pub. No. 2011/0198411A1. The impact sprinkler 10 includes a support 11 supporting a sprinkler assembly 12. The sprinkler assembly 12 includes a rotary member 121, an impact disc 122, a spoon 123, a rotary shaft 124 and a deflector 125. The support 11 has a bottom connected to an inlet nozzle 13. Based on the features disclosed, the impact sprinkler 10 radially sprinkles in a circular rotation. The principle of the impact sprinkler 10 is disclosed in aforesaid prior art designs and thus will not be described in details here.
The conventional impact sprinkler 10 has sprinkling angle of 360°. However, in some cases, the sprinkling angle may be required only for 0°˜180° such that the direction at the sprinkling angle of 180°˜360° may be a waste of water resource. To this end, the conventional impact sprinkler 10 provides a control shield (not shown) at a side of the support 11 to control the sprinkling angle.
This kind of the shield is a plastic integrally molded to a C-type body fixed on the side of the support 11 and there are some drawbacks thereof. The sprinkling angle of the C-type body is fixed when producing so it cannot be adjusted as required; that is, the sprinkling angle is not accurate enough and therefore there is room for improvement.